Around town Nothing could beat it for convenience (park on sideawalk - even in SF; too cute to ticket. Then..) It was simply Fun, even on the most mundane errand. It was also a piece of Art, prolly still in a few museums: precisely the reason I could 'steal' my first real motorcycle - when its owner saw me on mine, then stopped to swap..

Infinite mpg, (but you had to mix a capful of oil == 2-stroke).
And while I don't recommend it as 'practical' - I rode mine from SF --> Pasadena via Hwy 1 once. (OK so 45ish mph cruise -- but All That seascape, fresh air; why hurry?)

At $4+ pergallon, and with the hideous % of US credit card debt and now Net Average Savings in the [-] column: they Will come back; we may be dumb, but not all are stupid.

Alas, motorcycles have the better physics going for them, especially the relationship of Your CG to that of the whole package; the tiny wheels VS road objects etc. ie cycles are Safer at speed and stopping on a variety of surfaces.
(Then follows the minute and endless discussion of what any of that means.. once one has dealt with what a one Wants ;-)

Besides, there are today a range of 'scooters'; some motorcycle-like in their decent handling, fully capable of cruising two-up in the 70s, with the 5000# dinosaurs driven by the perpetually distracted - all about. But these ain't cheap. (Methinks the cute Vespas are also overpriced, all things considered.)

Ah well, I had my fun before it was necessary to deal with a nation of actual or wannabe Tank-drivers, inured to what they crush when reaching for that cel-fone or TV channel changer, while quieting the chattering ADD kiddies.


moi

but I believe that Muricans are solidy into the blame-game and its corollary - cradle --> grave Security (look how silently they caved to the Trotskyites' attacks on fundamental rights of US citizenship?)

So the first tyke impaled on a dune-buggy's ornamental spear == $$$ as an Example, etc.
It would be reversed PDQ, is my take.



Only in Mad Max flics - Muricans so love to take their 'liberty' vicariously; it's so much Safer that fantasy way, y'know?